


All Was Golden (When the Day met the Night)

by CoaxionUnlimited



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Genre: Developing Relationship, Dimension Travel, F/F, F/M, Gen, Gladion takes care of Aether paradise, Hau's favorite coping mechanism is denial, Lillie is actually in this fic I promise, M/M, Nebby is Lillie's Pokemon, Protag/Hau brotp, Protagonist is bad with words, Sedoretu, Sun and Gladion pass the broccoli test
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-23 01:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11979519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoaxionUnlimited/pseuds/CoaxionUnlimited
Summary: Sun and Gladion and Hau have figured out a comfortable, platonic balance in their relationships - but Lillie's coming back to Alola, and everyone is worried about where the chips might fall when their delicate equilibrium is disrupted. And Burnet's portal detector is acting up again . . .





	All Was Golden (When the Day met the Night)

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [Sedoretu_Fic_Fest](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Sedoretu_Fic_Fest) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> A character from hetero-marriage world is transported (dream vision? Swirly portal? Whatever) to sedoretu-au, where their personal life actually makes sense? And is functional? And then they have to come back to their real world and figure out what to do with that knowledge (and also the way that same-moiety friends hitting on them suddenly seems vaguely incestuous and weird.)
> 
> I didn't stick exactly to the prompt, but I hope this is something like what you wanted! If you don't know very much about the pokemon universe, leave a comment or message me at my tumblr and I'll give you all the background you need.
> 
> This universe is based off of an Ice Monotype challenge I did in Pokémon Sun - I hacked myself a Bergmite for my starter.
> 
> Every main character from Sun's universe is sixteen, and every main character from Moon's universe is eighteen.

Sun’s phone doesn’t actually have text to speech, but Rotom has a bad habit of possessing it when it thinks that she’s been sleeping for too long.

“Hau says: Twenty-Three Hours, Eleven Minutes, and Fourty-Six point Oh Five seconds, exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point, excla-”

“Mhng,” Sun says, rolling over and grabbing for the off button.

“Hey, szzleeepyhead,” Rotom says, affronted, “Lillie’s coming back tomorrow! You’ve got a big day of planning ahead of you.”

Sun smushes her head a little further into the pillow. That’s the problem. 

There’s going to be a party - if there’s one thing she’s learned from being the Champion in Alola, it’s that you can throw a party for any little thing, and Lillie returning isn’t a little thing - not for her, not for Hau, not for Gladion.

It’s not that Sun doesn’t like planning parties. That’s her job as the Champion, after all - throw parties, defeat challengers, and look into any threat to the islands - and if she didn’t like it, she’d slack on her training and let Hau have the title. She wouldn’t have to slack very much - he’s getting stronger every day.

But she likes planning parties, and she likes attending them, and she likes battling people. She’s even got a special team for battling kids who are just starting out on their island challenges - leveled enough to be a challenge, but not enough to be insurmountable. That’s her other job as Champion, after all. To help Alola grow.

She’d been excited about the party a couple of months ago. Then, she’d realized that it would be an Event - capital ‘E’- with all of the Kahunas and some kids who’d heard about her role in reviving the legendary pokemon, and some of the Aether paradise workers, and her mother-

Sun had kind of thought it’d be like old times - just her and Hau and maybe Gladion, waiting for Lillie on the dock.

Her phone buzzes - another text, and Sun reluctantly drags it beneath her covers to check. If it’s Hau, he’s not going to stop texting until she answers. She’s pretty sure that he and Rotom are in cahoots about the whole ‘wake Sun up before noon’ business.

It’s not from Hau. 

It’s from Kukui - Professor Burnet detects a dimensional anomaly, and it’s used Worry Seed on her whole lab. Come on over, this might be a job for the Champion of Alola :)

Sun’s feeling a lot more awake now. 

She snaps off a quick text to Hau - if she’s going to have to deal with Ultra Beasts again, she wants backup, and Gideon’s busy with the Aether Foundation these days - and hauls herself over to her portable PC. She grabs her primary team - Avalugg, Glaceon, Crabominable, Walrein, and Ninetales - and hesitates. She’s got a few more Pokemon she can fill her party with, but if it’s Ultra Beasts . . . 

She selects Nebby from the box, and puts him in the final slot of her party. He’s not an ice type, and they’ve never really battled together, but she’d rather have him there than not.

-

Nebby makes her think of Lillie - and that makes her frown.

Her mom pokes her head around the corner just as she’s checking Charizard’s saddle over for the third time. He’s a little anxious, but Sun needs the little bit of time to prepare for Hau. He’s going to be uncomplicatedly excited that Lillie’s coming home, and Sun isn’t sure how she’s going to deal with that.

“Is it Hau again?” her mother asks, knowingly. 

Sun shrugs. Her mother’s going to assume it’s Hau, no matter how she answers. 

“You know,” her mother says, gently, “You could just tell him you like him. I’m sure it wouldn’t change anything with Lillie.”

Charizard makes a concerned noise, and Sun relaxes her hand on the buckle. It’s not his fault.

“Kukui called,” she says, instead of answering. “I’ll probably be back in the afternoon.”

She swings herself, one-handed, onto Charizard’s back, and urges him into the sky. Her mom won’t mind the abrupt departure - she knows Sun is cagey when it comes to talking about feelings.

She’s not so good at that stuff - at putting what she’s feeling into words. It always comes out garbled - nothing like what she wanted to say in the first place. 

Her mom doesn’t understand how she feels about Hau. 

Sun doesn’t understand how she feels about Hau, but she knows that what her mom is thinking is wrong. Mom thinks she has a crush on Hau because once, when they were fourteen, he got a girlfriend, and Sun couldn’t stand it. It had been wrong, Hau kissing someone and running around the island with someone and showing off his Pokemon to someone - someone Sun didn’t like at all.

Her mom had taken her aside, then, and told her, gently, that she was jealous - but that it was Hau’s choice to make.

Sun disagreed. It was Hau’s choice, sure, but she wasn’t jealous. She didn’t want to kiss Hau, that would be weird.

Her mom assumes that Sun’s malaise (that’s what Gladion calls it, when you’re feeling terrible for no reason) is because Lillie’s coming back, and Hau - according to everyone who understands people - probably wants to kiss Lillie. 

Sun is fine with that.

It’s just - if she thinks about it - she (maybe) wants to kiss Lillie too. 

Charizard, spotting the dimensional lab, takes one of his (in)famous nosedives. Sun hangs grimly on, letting thoughts about Lillie drop to the wayside - for now.

-

Professor Burnet has been working through the night - her hair is disheveled, there are dark circles under her eyes, and she’s not chasing Hau away from the coffeemaker. Sun glances at Kukui, who’s watching Hau warily but not intervening, and mentally shrugs. If Burnet wants tar instead of coffee, it’s not Sun’s place to tell her no.

Burnet is typing frantically away, so Sun bypasses her and slings an arm around Hau, hooking her chin over his shoulder. He yelps, and fumbles his hold on the coffee machine, but doesn’t try to shake her free. 

“I’ve told you not to sneak up on me like that,” Hau grumbles, when he’s settled.

Sun makes a noncommittal hum in the back of her throat. He has, but she’s not listening. He’s cute when he’s startled. “What’s going on with the professor?” she says, instead of telling him what they both know.

Hau shrugs, jarring Sun’s chin with the pointy part of his shoulder. “Aue, it’s a lot of big science words. Kukui says there’s a portal opening sometime soon, but they can’t tell exactly when it’s happening or where it’s going. The professor’s trying to narrow it down.”

“You think it’s Ultra Beasts?” Sun tips her head, and Hau shifts his shoulder so she’s not digging her chin into muscle. 

“Well, we’ve never gotten anything else from portals . . .” Hau doesn’t sound too concerned. Sun can’t blame him - the Ultra Beasts were strong, sure, but Sun’s team is stronger, and when she’s working with Hau, they’re the strongest.

“But,” a new voice says, from behind them, “Professor Burnet thinks this one is- unusual, somehow.”

Hau stands still, staring fixedly at the coffeemaker. 

Sun releases him so she can turn and look Gladion in the eye. He’s frowning - which is unusual these days. Gladion’s grown into the kindest of them, Sun thinks, with all his conservation and rehabilitation. He’s good at making his face look gentle, and most of the time - around Sun and Hau, at least - he’s genuinely happy.

Sun raises an inquiring eyebrow.

Gladion’s mouth ticks lower, and his eyes dart away from her own. He is having trouble with Hau, then. That’s weird.

Hau’s impossible to fight with - Sun can be abrasive on bad days, but he’s never risen to her bait. Heck, he never rose to Gladion’s bait, not even when Gladion was - kind of - their enemy. If he’s actually mad at Gladion . . . that’s kind of concerning. 

Sun raises her other eyebrow.

Gladion inclines his head at the door to the balcony.

Sun holds up a finger, and pokes Hau in the side. 

“Did you bring your team?” she asks him, trying to distract him from whatever is making him frown.

“’Course I did,” Hau grumbles, “I’m not an idiot.”

“Never said you were.” Sun gently smacks his shoulder, and leaves to go talk with Gladion, since Hau’s clearly determined to be unhappy.

-

“It was my fault,” Gladion tells her, bluntly.

“Duh,” Sun says, just as bluntly. 

Gladion doesn’t tell her what he did, and Sun doesn’t ask.

Instead, Gladion puts his elbows on the railing of the balcony, looks down at the gray street and the bright blue water, just beyond it, and says, “Hau’s going to ask Lillie out, when she gets back.”

“He tell you that?” Sun steps closer and leans on the railing, facing the pale stone of the lab. 

Gladion shrugs. Sun can feel the motion from where their shoulders, just barely, brush. “Close enough.”

Sun doesn’t ask. It’s not her business, her mother would say. Still, she knocks her shoulder into Gladion’s. It’s not a hard hit, but he sways with the motion anyways, craning his head to give her a wry smile. 

Sun returns it.

“You think she’ll say yes?” Sun shuts her eyes - the glare of the sun off the building is getting to her.

“She loves him,” Gladion says, plain as the sunlight on his pale hair. 

Sun takes a deep, painful breath. Lillie is Gladion’s sister - he’d know best. 

Gladion shifts beside her, and a second later, his fingers are tangled with hers. “She talks about you, too,” he says, “Like you’re the sun in the sky. Like-” 

Sun watches, through cracked eyelids, as Gladion shakes his head. “I never saw that about you,” he says, low and rough, like he’s confessing a secret, “You weren’t ever anything but a kid, to me. A strong one, sure. But-”

Sun squeezes his hand. She gets the feeling, sort of. She and Gladion were too similar back then - driven for their partners and clashing because of it. She was never anything other than an obstacle to him. He and Silvally fight different battles now, but Avalugg and Sun like to face them in the field anyways.

Sun admires Lillie - Lillie’s ability to change, to sacrifice, to grow into whatever she needs to be. Sun’s only ever been herself - she can’t imagine trying to look for strength she isn’t sure she had. 

She and Gideon are similar, she thinks - they’ve only ever been themselves. They can’t reach further than the limits of their personality. 

“If Hau and Lillie-” Gladion says, cutting into her train of thought. He stops. Swallows. “Do you think - I mean, we went to that dinner, one time.”

Sun opens her eyes all the way, and turns to look at him. 

He’s asking her out. She remembers that dinner, and how everyone had called her his girlfriend. How they’d traded glances, and decided that it would be too much work to disillusion them.

It’s not - precisely - a bad suggestion. 

Sun follows the line of his jaw with her eyes, looks at the way the sun is filtering through his pale hair, turning it faint gold. They’d be good for each other, she thinks. That’s what her mother would say - his calm planning and her immovable will combining to make something greater. 

Sun wouldn’t mind kissing him. Wouldn’t mind tangling her fingers in that fine hair, brushing her thumb down that sharp jaw, tracing the perfect lines of his collarbone.

But-

Sun thinks of the way he looks at Hau, when he thinks Hau isn’t paying attention. Of the way that she wants to know what to say to Lillie, but wants, more, for Lillie to smile at her like she used to.

Gladion has a different training style than she does. When Silvally tells him to stop, to slow down, he listens. If there’s an obstacle in their path, they work their way around it, even if it takes them longer. It’s been good for them, it helped Silvally to trust him in the first place.

Sun trains differently. When she and Avalugg find an obstacle they can’t overcome at first, they try again, try harder. When Avalugg looks at her, and she can see in his eyes that he doesn’t think he can go on any further, she always asks him for just a little bit more. 

Gladion can make compromises, can settle into working conservation. Can take on a fight when he knows he will never be stronger than his opponent, when he knows that he can never make nature any less cruel. Can settle for doing what good he can, believes really and truly that anything is better than nothing.

Sun is the first Pokemon League Champion of Alola, and she’s held her title for three years now.

It’s not in her nature to settle for only half of what she wants.

“I don’t think that would solve any of our problems,” she tells Gladion, reaching out to press her free hand to his chest.

Gladion snorts, and shoots her a wry smile. 

Before he can say what he’s obviously itching to, there’s a shout from inside the lab. 

Sun is turning to go before she can think - if there’s something wrong, she needs to be there to fix it. Gladion doesn’t move, but Sun knows he’ll come if she calls him.

-

It’s nothing - Burnet thought she saw a peak.

But Hau’s finally cooled down enough to want to talk.

“What I just don’t get,” Hau says, stuffing his hands in his pockets as they watch over the Professor’s shoulder, “Is why you and Gladion are so unhappy about everything. Lillie’s finally coming back!” He turns to look her sternly in the face. “That’s a good thing.”

Sun nods. 

“There’s just - there’s so much I want to say to her,” Hau says, “So much that can’t fit on emails or pieces of paper. I can’t wait for her to be back. But you and Gladion-” Hau shakes his head, and shoots Sun a narrow look. 

“It’s not that I don’t want to see her again,” Sun says, and her voice is too quiet, even to her own ears. “I just- you’re so sure. About what you want to say. I don’t know how to put it into words at all.”

Hau rolls his eyes. “Just say it,” he tells her, “Whatever it is you want to say.”

“I don’t know how,” Sun snaps. “I don’t even know what it is!”

There’s a sound from behind them, like some gigantic sheet of paper is getting ripped in half, like the sky is tearing open again. 

One second Sun is glaring at Hau, in the faintly artificial light of Burnet’s lab. 

The next, she’s in the middle of some kind of field, and something is swooping down at them.

“Avalugg,” Sun calls, her fingers ripping his pokeball from her belt. He won’t be able to react before whatever pokemon it is hits, but Avalugg is pretty slow anyways. They’ve found ways to make it into a strength. “Avalanche!”

The pokemon makes impact, slamming into the steel-hard ice of Avalugg’s back. The next second, charged lumps of ice are slamming into - it’s a Salamence, ha - its back, forcing it to the ground.

Its trainer calls it back as it stumbles. Sun brushes her fingers against Avalugg’s side, and holds up her head, ready to remind whoever it is that sending out a dragon type against an ice specialist is a terrible idea. She can feel her mouth curl into a smile as she looks at the woman’s face. Her opponent’s eyes are hard, her mouth ticking downward as her fingers search over the pokeballs clipped to her belt. 

She looks, faintly, like Sun’s mom. 

“Raichu,” Hau calls, and for a disorienting moment, Sun doesn’t think the voice is coming from beside her at all. She looks up, startled, and finds herself staring at Hau - taller than he should be? and standing next to her opponent? But that can’t be right, because if she darts a quick glance to her side, Hau is standing there-

Hau - both Haus - follow the path of Sun’s gaze and notice each other at almost the same time. The expression of surprise, the flailing hands, the backwards step, both of those happen in almost perfect unison. It’s so Hau that Sun finds her mouth curling upwards, almost in spite of herself. She glances to the side, almost instinctively looking for Gladion. 

Instead, she finds her opponent. She’s wearing Sun’s own half smile, the faintest ticking of lips in amusement. 

It’s weird.

Sun presses her weight against Avalugg, taking a little bit of comfort from his steady bulk, and doesn’t look away from her opponent. She won’t be the first one to bend here.

“Well,” her opponent says, with the kind of manic cheer that Sun reserves for situations which have exceeded all her expectations in a bad way. “I think we got off on the wrong foot. We should try to start again - with introductions maybe? I like the idea of introductions. I’m Moon, the first Champion of the Alola region, and a dragon type specialist.”

She raises her eyebrows at Sun.

Sun tightens her hand against Avalugg’s belly, but straightens her back, and responds anyways, “I’m Sun - Ice specialist and first Champion of the Alola region.”

“And I’m Hau,” both Haus say, and wince in unison.

“Seriously,” Sun’s Hau grumbles, loosening his hand from around Raichu’s pokeball, “We have got to stop doing that.”

“Yeah, brother,” the other Hau says, and shakes his head. 

“So,” Moon says, “You guys came out of that portal, right?” 

Sun inclines her head. “It seems so,” she murmurs.

“Then you should stay with us,” Hau - other Hau - butts in, “I’m sure Lillie and Gladion won’t mind.”

“Gladion always did like strays,” Moon agrees, smiling her little half-smile again.

“Wait,” Hau asks, “You guys live with Gladion and Lillie?”

He’s staring at them with big, shocked eyes. Sun concurs with the shock a bit - she’d have thought Gladion would want to stay at Aether Paradise, and her mom would never let her live with Hau - but it doesn’t sound like a bad idea.

“Don’t worry,” Moon advises, flipping out a careless hand. “They’re morning in this universe.”

“Mourning what?” Sun asks, tilting her head to the side. It’s not like she’d be sad if Lusamine died, but she knows Lillie would . . . 

“Morning,” other Hau folds his hands behind his head and grins at them, “You know, like their moeities?”

Hau and Sun trade looks, and then Hau turns and looks at his other self with total, blank, incomprehension.

“Moe-what?” he asks, “Is that like the anime thing Gladion-” he stops, registering the expressions on their other selves.

Which is to say, Moon and other-Hau are looking at him like he’s dissolved into a ditto. 

“Wait,” other-Hau says, holding up a hand, his mouth open in something like horror. “Do you guys not have moieties where you’re from?”

“I don’t think so?” Sun glances over her shoulder to watch other-Hau’s facial expression. “I’ve never heard of it.”

Moon looks disturbed. “That’s just- that’s gross,” she adds, looking at Sun, “Arceus, you could kiss Hau.”

“I’m not going to kiss Hau,” Sun says, trying for reassuring and - judging by the way Moon is looking at her - completely missing the mark.

“Yeah,” Hau agrees, “That’d be weird.”

Other-Hau still doesn’t look reassured, and neither does Moon.

“What are moeities anyways?” Sun asks - maybe she can get them to calm down if she just understands a little bit better?

Other-Hau and Moon look at each other, and other-Hau makes a sort of helpless gesture.

“It’s like - you have two kinds of moeities,” Moon says, “Morning and evening. You get your moeity from your mom. And morning people kissing each other is wrong and evening people kissing each other is wrong.”

“And when people get married,” Hau adds, “They get married in a sedoretu - which has a morning man and a morning woman and an evening man and an evening woman. There’s four marriages in a sedoretu - the morning man and the evening woman are the Evening marriage, the morning woman and the evening man are the Morning marriage, the morning woman and the evening woman are the Day marriage, and the evening man and the morning man are the Night marriage.”

Sun blinks at him, and asks, “But what about the morning woman and the morning man?”

“They’re not married,” Moon tells her, with a distinct air of obviously, “But they’re part of the sedoretu together anyways.”

“It’s why we live with Lillie and Gladion,” other-Hau adds, “We’re too young to get married, but Moon and I are evening and Lusamine was morning - so we’re the right moeities to make a household.”

Sun thinks about that - mulls it over in the back of her mind. It would be, she thinks, kind of nice -

“Wait,” Hau says, “So does that mean that me and Sun are evening too?”

“No,” Moon tells him, “Both of you are obviously morning.”

Sun looks at Hau. Hau looks back.

In unison, they decide that it’s probably not worth arguing about.

“Right,” Moon says, “Now that that’s out of the way, it’s getting on dinner time. You guys should come home with us.”

“Okay,” Sun says. It was almost time for breakfast, back when she and Hau got dragged through the wormhole, so she’s actually hungry. And it’s not like Hau would ever say no to food.

-

Other-Hau and Moon live in a little house perched on the side of Ten Carat Hill. Close to Sun’s - no, it’d be Moon’s, in this universe - mom, close to Hau’s grandpa, a short boat ride away from Aether Paradise, a couple minutes walk from Kukui and Burnet - but still just uphill enough to discourage casual visitors. 

It’s perfect, Sun thinks, clambering up the rocky path to their doorstep, Avalugg safely recalled to his ball. It’s almost a melancholy thought - if Sun could choose somewhere to live, she’d pick anywhere with Lillie and Hau and Gladion. But it’s not something she can have - or at least not something she knows how to ask for.

She’s maybe a little bit jealous of her other self. If not for this, then for the easy way she’s got an arm slung around Hau’s shoulders, tucked close without being worried about anyone watching and getting the wrong impression. When Moon and other-Hau get to their doorstep, the door bursts open and Lillie bounces out, wrapping both of them in an enthusiastic hug. Sun and Hau are still too far down the hill for Sun to make out what they’re saying, but Lillie looks happy. Gladion, leaning on the doorframe and looking on, is smiling at the three of them - like this is something they do every day, like he’s happy to see them again.

“- and they’re from a dimension where everyone is the opposite moeity, except they don’t know what moeities are -” other-Hau is saying, when Sun gets far enough up the hill to hear him.

“You know they’re right there, Hau,” Gladion points out, “I’m sure they can tell us what their world is like for themselves.”

“I don’t know,” Lillie says, dropping her arms from other-Hau and Moon, and turning to watch Hau and Sun make their way up to the door of the little house, “It can be hard to think of how to describe the place where you’re from - so much of it just seems normal if you grew up there.”

Gladion huffs, dragging a hand through his spiky bangs. “It’s rude to talk about them when they’re right there, anyways.”

Lillie grins at him, all mischief. “Then maybe we should stop doing that,” she says, and deliberately turns to face Sun and Hau. “Hi there, I’m Lillie. Who are you guys?”

“I’m Hau!” Hau grins at her and waves.

“And I’m Sun,” Sun gives a little wave, trying to look a little bit more mature than Hau. 

“You’re right,” Gladion remarks, his head turned to other-Hau, “They really are morning.”

Lillie nods. “I think you know all of our names already, since we exist in your world too - so I won’t reintroduce myself. Gladion and I just finished up dinner, and if Moon hasn’t invited you to eat with us already, I know she wants to.”

“She has,” Hau assures Lillie.

“I just hope we won’t be a bother,” Sun interjects, quietly.

Lillie laughs - it’s a bright sound, silvery in the cool twilight air. “You won’t be! I want to learn more about your world, and besides, Moon is the Champion. It’s her job to take care of the people who don’t have anywhere else to go.”

So that’s settled then. Sun lets Lillie shepherd her into the house, and tries not to let on that she’s a little uneasy about all this. 

-

Dinner is good. Despite training the opposite kind of Pokemon, Moon apparently has pretty similar tastes in food to Sun, and the food here seems to be mostly the same as the food from their home.

Hau eats too much, and answers all the questions that Lillie asks him with his mouth full of food. Sun doesn’t feel so much like eating, so she lets Gladion and Lillie tease information about her Pokemon journey out of her. Apparently, this universe is two years forward in time from her own. She lets her Pokemon out, too - first so Lillie can meet them, and then so they can eat the spare food that Gladion keeps in the pantry.

Sun’s pretty sure that he’ll have to buy more after they leave, but he doesn’t seem to mind at all.

Lillie tells them at least three times that they can ask her any questions they have about this world. Sun isn’t sure what to ask - she kind of wants to know about Pokemon distribution, but Rotom is already sharing data with Moon’s Rotom, and it seems kind of bad etiquette to pour over Rotom’s data at the dinner table.

Hau asks if Kukui and Burnet are still married - you know, because marriage works differently in this dimension. 

Sun hadn’t thought of the question, but she is kind of curious - at least until Moon explains that they used to be in a sedoretu with Guzma, of all people. 

After that, she decides that it’s probably better for her sanity if she doesn’t learn those kind of things. She’s not sure she’s ever going to be able to look Kukui in the eye again.

Sun doesn’t actually think of a question until they’re clearing off the dinner table. 

It’s not a big thing that triggers it, or anything. Just Lillie, smiling up at the Solgaleo version of Nebby, and looking so much like the Lillie that Sun knows that it makes her breath catch in her chest.

She’s Lillie - Sun thinks, the knowledge humming through her nerves. She’s really Lillie, and she’d know anything that Lillie would know. 

Before she can stop herself, Sun’s fingers are wrapping around Lillie’s elbow, and her voice, without her permission, is stumbling over words. “Lillie,” she asks, “Did you- when you- when you were in Kanto, did you ever think- about not coming back to Alola?”

Lillie looks at her for a moment, her jaw slack with surprise, and then she says, softly, “Sun, I-” She stops, swallows. “I think,” Lillie continues, “I’m going to answer the question you meant, not the question you asked. I met many wonderful people and Pokemon in Kanto, and I’d never trade my journey for anything in the world. But that doesn’t mean that the time I spent here on Alola meant any less to me. Me and Moon and Hau - even if we didn’t make a sedoretu together, I think we’d still be tied together by all the things we experienced together on our journey. For me, and I’m sure this is true for your Lillie too, there is no one in the world that can replace you.”

Sun swallows, and looks down. She’s ashamed, a little bit, that she was so transparent. She’s the champion - she’s supposed to be the strong one, she’s not supposed to have any doubts or insecurities. 

But it’s reassuring, a little bit, to hear that Lillie hasn’t forgotten her.

“Was that what the problem was?” Hau asks, from where he’s washing the dishes in a cute pyukumuku apron. 

Sun shrugs, but Hau doesn’t take the hint. “You should just have asked Lillie that,” he continues, “I can’t believe you’d let something like that ruin her coming home-”

Gladion, from the other side of the sink, smacks him gently upside the head. “Hau,” he scolds, “Words are hard for Sun, in the same way they’re hard for me. It’s hard for us to express what we truly mean - and you can’t fix that by just telling Sun what she should say.”

“Sun,” Lillie says, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I know it’s hard for you to say what you mean. But I- other me, I mean, is a Pokemon trainer now.”

Sun looks up at her, and raises an eyebrow.

“You don’t have to express your feelings with words,” Lillie explains, reaching for a pokeball on her belt, “You can show me in the way you know best. Your Pokemon know your heart, just as my Pokemon know mine. If they meet in battle, I’m sure your feelings will get across.”

Avalugg picks that moment to nudge his head gently into her thigh. 

Sun looks over her shoulder, and sees the rest of her Pokemon, assembled and looking resolved up at her. She sinks to her knees, and gently wraps her arms around Avalugg’s neck. Ninetales and Walrein crowd close, pressing elegant tails and smooth blue skin against her sides. Glaceon shoves his head through the gap under Avalugg’s leg to give her knee a quick, gentle lick, and Crabominable reaches a long limb over Walrein’s bulk to pat her on the head.

Sun hugs Avalugg a little tighter, and whispers a thank-you against his neck. He’s not going to be able to hear it - but Lillie was right. 

They know her heart, better than she ever could.

“I’m sorry,” she murmurs, a little louder, so all of them can hear it, “I forgot you all were with me. I’ll try not to do that again.”

Sun stays there a moment longer, and then hauls herself to her feet, brushing impatiently at her face. There’s still dishes to be done.

-

It’s late enough in this universe that their other selves excuse themselves to go to bed just after they finish cleaning up dinner. 

Sun and Hau - who only woke up a couple of hours ago, decline the offer of a guest bedroom. Instead, Sun hauls herself and her team (and Nebby) out onto a bench set into the side of the hill. Moon had said it was for watching stars - apparently she was a night Rowlet.

She doesn’t ask Hau to join her, but he does anyways - letting Raichu out of her ball so she can compete with Ninetales for the least dirty patch of grass. 

“I think I should say sorry,” Hau says, when they’ve finished keeping Ninetales from freezing Raichu’s ear off.

Sun looks over at him from where she’s sprawled in the grass, her back pillowed on Walrein. She could sit on the bench, of course, but Walrein is more comfortable.

“For what?” she asks, her voice quiet in the night air.

“For earlier,” he tells her, “Gramps is always saying that just because we don’t understand why people are struggling doesn’t mean they aren’t struggling, and I don’t think I listened as well as I should.”

Sun hums - not able to deny it, but not really interested in continuing this line of thought.

“I just can’t believe that you would ever worry that Lillie’s going to forget you.” Hau plops himself on the grass, within easy reach of Sun, and folds his hands behind his head.

“Why?” Sun asks, playing with a piece of grass, “Isn’t it going to be you who asks her out?”

Hau groans, and tries to kick Sun in the leg.

“Not you too,” he says, and he sounds almost angry, “I don’t get why everyone thinks that.”

“Well,” Sun yanks the blade of grass out of the soil and focuses on shredding it into little chunks, “Why wouldn’t you? You like her, right?”

“Yeah,” Hau says, “But she loves you.”

Sun shoots him a sharp look. 

Hau gives her one back, his mouth thinning around the corners. “Come on,” he says, and there’s something dark and bitter in it, “We got along on our Pokemon journey, but every time she needed help, every time she needed someone to support her when she moved forward, it was always you. You were the person she needed.” Hau stops, and sighs. “I’m kind of jealous of that.”

“I feel that way about you and Gladion,” Sun admits, picking another piece of grass to shred, “I battled him, and I beat him, but you were the one who showed him he didn’t have to be alone. I don’t think I ever could have done that.”

Hau sighs, and drags his hands over his eyes. “Gladion assumed the same thing that you did, though.”

“Was that why you two were fighting?” Sun asks, and seeing the answer in Hau’s face, she sighs. “I don’t think that was the question he really meant to ask.”

“You two,” Hau groans, “Are awful. How am I supposed to know what he meant to ask?”

Sun shrugged. “I’m not sure you were. Besides, if we’re so awful, why don’t you just date Lillie?”

“Why don’t you just date Lillie?” Hau counters, “I’m pretty sure she likes you better.”

Sun makes a face at him. “I asked you first.”

Hau throws a clod of dirt at her. Sun inclines her head to dodge it, and sticks her tongue out at Hau. 

“I like Gladion too,” she says, the words bursting out of her, almost painfully. “I think he’d rather have you, but-”

She shakes her head. Hau groans, and shoves his face in his hands.

“I don’t-” he says, “I mean I like Gladion, but-” he stops, and Sun looks over at him, and watches him turn an interesting shade of red. “Oh.”

“It’d work that way,” Sun tells him, “You and Gladion, and me and Lillie.”

Hau nods. “I guess it would,” he says, “Is that what you want?”

“Of course not,” Sun snorts, and Hau snaps his head up to look at her in surprise, “I want that,” she says, and points at the little house, with all the lights turned off. “I want you and me and Lillie and Gladion, together like we were on our journey, but for always.”

“That’s not how things back home work, though,” Hau says, and there’s something in his voice, almost like it wants to crack. “You can’t have four marriages.”

“You asked what I wanted,” Sun tells him, grabbing another piece of grass, “Not what I think I can have.”

They sit there in silence for a couple of minutes more. Out here the stars are clear and bright, and Sun can hear the cries of the Pokemon in the sea.

“I think,” Hau says, eventually, “I think I want that too.”

Sun takes a slow breath, and reaches out to grab Hau’s hand with hers. He squeezes her fingers, and wipes his other hand across his face.

“Then,” Sun says, her voice quiet, almost too quiet, even in the stillness of the Melemele night, “Maybe we should try for it.”

Hau sniffs, and wrenches his hand out of hers to cover his face, his shoulders shaking.

“I don’t think it will be easy,” Sun says, trying not to let her voice waver or crack, “And I don’t know if my mom will like it, but I still think-”

Hau launches himself across the grass, and buries his face in her chest.

“I think we should try for it too,” he whispers, his voice cracking around the words.

Sun wraps her arms around his shoulders, and presses her face into the crook of his neck.

“Okay,” she whispers, her voice thin, “okay.”

On Sun’s belt, Nebby’s pokeball starts to shake. She ignores it for a moment - and then it bursts open, leaving Nebby standing in front of them, its starry mane flared.

Sun and Hau pull away from each other, and look at it.

“What do you want?” Sun asks, her voice coming out an unsteady croak. She swallows, clears her throat, and then stands up.

Nebby barks, and behind it a wormhole opens.

“Hey,” Hau says, as Sun recalls her Pokemon with a snap of her wrist, “Why didn’t you just do that in the first place?”

“I think it wanted to make a point,” Sun says, dryly, while Nebby somehow contrives to look smug. “You’re still looking out for Lillie, aren’t you?”

Nebby roars, as if in agreement, and then offers its back. 

Sun and Hau look at each other, and then climb on.

-

When they show up, back in Burnet’s lab, there’s a lot of noise and shouting. 

Sun mostly tunes it out, because the first thing she notices is Lillie. Lillie, who grabs both of them in a tight hug as soon as Nebby lets them down.

“I’m so glad you’re alright,” she says, “Burnet said they couldn’t find you, and I was so worried-”

“You missed her welcome-back party,” Gladion adds, from across the room, but Sun can see how carefully he’s watching them. 

Sun hangs on a moment longer, and then disentangles herself from Lillie. She grabs Nebby’s empty pokeball off her belt, and drops it to the floor, so she can crush it under her heel. 

Nebby roars its approval, then bounces through an open window and out of sight.

“What?” Sun asks, when she sees the expression on Lillie’s face, “You’re back now, so I don’t have to look after it. I think it’s going to wait for you at the Temple of the Sunne.”

Lillie blinks at her, and Hau, from Sun’s side, starts laughing. 

“If you want,” Sun continues, “I can test to see if you’re ready to face it.” 

Lillie blinks at her again, glances at the way Sun’s hand is hovering near her belt, and then grins. “I was wondering what the best way to show you my pokemon would be,” she admits, “I’ll be glad to be your opponent.”

“Don’t think I’ll go easy on you,” Sun warns, her mouth twitching upwards into a smile.

“I wouldn’t want you to,” Lillie agrees, smiling back.

“And when you’re done,” Hau interjects, grabbing Gladion around the shoulders, “You should come back to Aether Paradise and have dinner with us. The world we went to was crazy, and we’ve got to tell you all about it!”

Lillie glances between Hau, who’s smiling like a maniac, and Sun, who’s smile has evolved into a smirk, trades a look with Gladion, and says, softly, “I’ve got a lot to tell you guys too. I look forward to it.”


End file.
